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Dante
Dante of the Blood Angels Chapter]] Commander Dante, sometimes called the "Lord of Angels" and "Bringer of Sanguinius' Light", is the current Chapter Master of the Blood Angels Space Marines Chapter, and has been the Chapter Master for 1,100 standard years. Dante's Power Armour incorporates a highly ornate golden death mask beneath his Iron Halo, called the Death Mask of Sanguinius, which is said to have been worn by and shaped to match the fear-inspiring features of Sanguinius, the Blood Angels' Primarch, at the moment of his death at the hands of the Archtraitor Horus. He is believed to be the oldest living Loyalist Space Marine as he is currently over 1,500 standard years old, with the exception of those Space Marines sustained by the cybernetic technology of Dreadnoughts, the use of temporal stasis or other technological means of extending human life. Lord Commander Dante's exact age is unknown, but is approximately 1,547 Terran years. Following the victory of the Blood Angels Chapter and their Successors in the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan's assault upon their homeworld of Baal, the Primarch Roboute Guilliman, the Lord Commander of the Imperium, declared Dante to be the Regent of the Imperium Nihilus. This made Dante the effective ruler of the entire half of the Imperium cut off from Terra on the other side of the Great Rift. History To many worlds within the Imperium's borders, the Adeptus Astartes are nothing more than a myth. Among those planetary populations enlightened enough to be aware of the existence of the Space Marines, many of those only come into their knowledge through the unwelcome brutalities of war. When their world falls to invasion or rises up in rebellion, it is the God-Emperor's Angels of Death that answer the Imperium's call. In this way, knowledge is too often bought with blood. But there are always names that drift through the dark regions between isolated worlds. The names of great heroes of Humanity, spoken in whispers. The names of Mankind's guardians; those warriors who walk the line between fact and fiction, prayer and myth. Few are spoken by as many voices, and with greater reverence, than Dante, Lord of Angels. The Bringer of Light. The Bane of Daemons. Lord Commander Dante, Lord of the Host and Bringer of Sanguinius' Light, holds the bleak honour of leading the Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter in the swansong days of the Imperium. He is the embodiment of every virtue in his Chapter's long and glorious history, renowned as a paragon of the Blood Angels' noble ideals. And yet, beneath his golden facemask lies a shadowed contrast, for the Lord of Angels bears the heavy weight of his Chapter's secret melancholies. Dante is noted in many of the Adeptus Terra's archives as the oldest Space Marine warrior still alive in the Dark Millennium. According to Imperial histories, Dante has reigned for over a thousand standard years as Chapter Master, and served the Blood Angels in other capacities for several hundred standard years before ascending to the rank of Commander. Even Captain Lysander of the Imperial Fists, who was lost in the eddies and tides of Warpspace for a thousand standard years, cannot recall a time when Dante did not reign supreme over the Blood Angels. Dante lays claim to a Record of Triumph longer than the entire honour rolls of several Chapters founded in the twilight centuries of the 41st Millennium. Somehow, this isn't enough. As with all of its heroes, the Imperium's official archives blend legend and truth with impunity. Facts become distorted by time, flawed retellings, and authorial myth-making. In a stellar empire of a million worlds and a million different human cultures, there is no such thing as objective truth. Perhaps, in his humility, Dante lets his legend grow even beyond its truly heroic boundaries because he knows Humanity needs heroes at the dawn of the End Times. Or perhaps he is simply too focused and dutiful to pay heed to the words of mortal men and women. His charge is to defend the Imperium, not worry as to how history will remember his name. The First Omen The warrior who would become Dante began life as any other Blood Angel. He was born a mortal, name Luis, to a man called Arreas, on Baal's second moon. Luis grew to adolescence roaming the Great Salt Waste, far beyond any settlements on Baal Secundus. That moon is an unkind home to those that claw out an existence on its back, with the assault of constant radiation and attacks by vicious, mutated lifeforms common occurrences. At seven Terran-standard years of age, the boy lost his mother. Emboldened by the loss, in a few years time, he in turn abandoned his father to make the perilous journey to become an Angel. Due to life roaming the Salt Wastes, Luis' growth was stunted by malnutrition even more so than his peers. His skin shared the same pocked-mark disfigurement that all Baalites bore, due to exposure to the rad-deserts of his homeworld. The Great Salt Waste, which Luis called home, was far removed from Angel's Fall. No Salt Roamer who attempted the journey survived to make the leap. Yet the boy showed resolve, resolve that would serve him well in the years to come, and attempted the journey. Alas, like so many before him, Luis failed when thirst gripped him and deprived him of will. When all hope seemed lost, the boy spied a winged, golden figure, and with it, precious water. This was the first of four encounters with what Luis would come to know as the Sanguinor. It is said that Luis showed no special promise among the tribesmen that finally reached the Place of Choosing. Sheer luck allowed him and the other 500 boys to pass the first Winnowing. Yet it was Luis' resolve, not chance, that afforded the approval of his peers in the trials that followed. Throughout the trials, Luis remained unremarkable -- he was neither the most athletic, nor the strongest. But he survived, and was taken to the Place of Challenge. It was there that the boy faced his first true test -- the Trial of War. With a clear mind and confidence Luis led his force to victory, yet the senseless bloodshed and deaths of the other Aspirants disgusted him. This disgust served him well in his final trial -- the Trial of Horus. Adhering resolutely to his morals, Luis refused to kill a fellow Aspirant, thus sealing his place as a Blood Angel. Through this act he earned his place amongst the Aspirants taken from their tribes and transported to the Blood Angels' fortress-monastery on Baal itself. It was there that he faced his final challenge -- the Winnowing of Weariness. For three solar days Luis remained awake, and on the final day, as sleep threatened to overtake him, he received aid once more from the mysterious Sanguinor and passed his final test. In the Chapter's vast, armoured cathedral, beneath the glowering marble gazes of the Blood Angels who had been the Chapter's champions throughout the Age of the Imperium, Luis was presented with the Sanguinary Chalice, and drank the synthesised blood of the Ninth Primarch. He fell into the ritual year-long slumber necessary for the process of gene-seed implantation, and was entombed within a sanctified sarcophagus. It was during this time that the boy first drew notice from the Sanguinary Priests. While all somnolent Aspirants would dream visions of the Primarch's life and death, the child Luis cried out endlessly over the course of his year-long internment, shouting the names of fallen Primarchs, dark gods, and long-banished daemons, while drifting between consciousness and slumber, never truly rising to one or falling into the other. So violent was his slumber that it is said he lifted the lid of his sarcophagus. Many Aspirants die in their sarcophagi -- it is simply the way of things for those who would become Blood Angels. The weak will always fail, even at the first step. But no Aspirant had ever shown such torment, and lived to be freed. Upon emerging, with the cancerous flaws of Baal Secundus shriven clean from his remade, angelic form, none of the Sanguinary Priests failed to note the marks left by the desperate clawing at the inside of his coffin lid. And yet, there he stood among them, Luis no longer. Dante was perfectly whole, perfectly composed, ready to begin his true training. Some among the Sanguinary Priesthood believed this first omen signalled a swift descent into the maddened depths of the Red Thirst and Black Rage. Others pointed to Dante's perfection after enduring what seemed like greater pain than any other Aspirant, and argued that it heralded only greatness. A Son of Sanguinius A rarely-spoken truth, known only to the Blood Angels and their closest Successor Chapters, is that Dante was never destined to rise to the rank of Lord Commander. This warrior, who now stands astride the Imperium in the burnished armour of a living legend, was a line officer who ascended to the highest position during one of the Blood Angels' bleakest eras. More than once, the Blood Angels have been threatened with destruction. In the final decades of the 37th Millennium, they were a broken Chapter, ravaged by the Black Legion on the world of Mackan during the tumultuous years of the Ghost War. Although the Angels restored their strength over the following standard centuries, for the first time it introduced the threat of mortality upon one of the proudest and noblest First Founding Chapters. Nearly three thousand standard years later, in an event that would come to be known as the Kallius Insurrection, the Blood Angels would again taste the risk of annihilation, losing nine out of every ten Space Marines, and almost the entire Chapter Council. Three full companies, including the young Brother-Captain Dante and his 5th Company, launched a devastating assault on Kallius' Landing and its dependency worlds, in support of their overwhelmed Successor Chapter, the Angels Numinous. The Blood Angels found themselves tied up in protracted conflicts and trench wars, caught in a cobweb of a much wider heresy. When the Blood Angels finally withdrew from the conflict, they were struck the most bitter of blows. As the remnants of their fleet mustered above Kallius' Landing itself, a Traitor armada broke from the Warp, eager to wipe the Scions of Sanguinius from the Imperium forever. The vicious void war and boarding actions that followed lasted for three solar days. Dante and his warriors were responsible for the taking and scuttling of seven capital-class vessels. When at last the Blood Angels emerged victorious and took stock of their losses, fewer than 200 Blood Angels remained. Coming together in communion, the last surviving Sanguinary Priests and Chaplains elected the last-living Captain of the Chapter, Dante, as their next Chapter Master. Accepting the mantle of Lord of the Angelic Host, he would forever after be clad in Artificer Armour of sacred gold. Though such an inauspicious beginning should have heralded a bleak reign as Chapter Master, Dante's fate unfolded much differently. The Archangel's Mantle and the Death Mask of Sanguinius; he has never been seen without the Mask outside the Blood Angels' fortress-monastery.]] Since taking the role of Chapter Master, Dante has led the Blood Angels into their most glorious and triumphant millennia since the time of the Scouring. The Great Wolf Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves is perhaps beloved by the people of the Imperium above any other Space Marine commander, and Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines is often considered the most respected by the other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. Lord Commander Dante of the Blood Angels bears a reputation similar to theirs, but where the Great Wolf is celebrated by the populace for his wisdom as well as his warfare, the Lord of Angels is a distant, golden saviour -- a hero of myth come to life. Where the Lord Macragge is a composed, ruthlessly efficient frontline general admired for his acumen as much as his battle prowess, the Bringer of Light is an avenging angel, falling from the sky ahead of his brothers to strike the first blow. No loyal soul would ever compare such exalted heroes -- all are equal beneath the gaze of the God-Emperor -- but over 1,500 standard years of supreme service speaks for itself. Dante's deeds are already stained with the patina of mythic storytelling. Each fall of his axe ends the reign of a Daemon Lord. Each descent from above, flying on contrails of fire, spells the end of another rebellion. Much of it may be myth, but much more of it is true. Skarbrand, the Prince of Rage, the Exiled Son of the Blood God Khorne, fell to Dante at the Gates of Pandemonium. With the daemon's banishment, the creature's armies soon lost their hold on reality and were cast back into the foulness of the Warp with their defeated master. The world of Terion, at the dawn of the 41st Millennium, saw Dante lead his Angels against an unholy alliance of the Night Lords and the Traitor warband known to Imperial records as the Brotherhood of Darkness. Centuries later, Terion has been rebuilt into a paradise; all that remains of the war's legacy is a monument to Dante, sculpted in marble and standing as a colossus in the capital city, with the statue's outstretched hand reaching to the horizon, offering mercy to the citizens' forefathers. None can deny the scope of Dante's campaign experience. He has fought battles uncounted, orchestrated innumerable major campaigns and seized bloody victory on worlds as far-flung as Ultima Macharia and star-swept Jonol, homeworld of the Honoured Sons Astartes. It is said that no man has visited as many of the Imperium's million worlds as Dante, and he has come to each in full raiment of war, at the head of a glorious and vengeful host. The cursed war-world of Armageddon remains the site of his most famous victory. During the Second War for Armageddon the Blood Angels rallied the defenders of the besieged hive cities Acheron and Tartarus, and Dante's leadership was instrumental in devastating the Greenskin hordes sweeping across the planet's principal landmass. Dante and his Blood Angels led the Space Marine reinforcements to Acheron Hive, where he routed the attacking Orks and captured the heretical Planetary Governor Herman von Strab. Without the Blood Angels' reinforcements, Acheron Hive might well have fallen to the Orks, and with it, the Imperium's remaining chances of victory and the retention of its grip on this crucial strategic world. A generation later, his name is still spoken with reverent awe, and one of the Armageddon System's deep space monitoring installations was named in his honour. When the Third War for Armageddon started, Dante was too far away to fulfil his prior pledge to defend the planet from any further attempts by the Orks to seize it. In his stead, he sent Captain Erasmus Tycho and his 3rd Company of the Blood Angels to aid the world's defence. Dante has held the Blood Angels together during the tempestuous years of a civil war unknown to the wider Imperium of Man, and set whole fleets of Traitor vessels aflame with the wrath of his fleet's cannons. Alone, he has taken the helms of hundreds of Champions of the Dark Gods, keeping their tainted relics in stasis when they could not be destroyed, so that no others would rise as heirs to the blasphemous fallen. To his fellow Chapter Masters, Dante is an exemplar of the fearlessness, dedication and strategic genius that speak to the heart of the Space Marines' never-ending mission. To the hard-pressed generals and marshals of the Imperial Guard he is a thrice-welcomed and honoured ally who stands at the forefront of Mankind's defence. To the common soldiers and citizens of the Imperium, Dante is nothing less than a saviour, a golden god who descends from the heavens on wings of fire. The Time of Ending With his face shrouded by Sanguinius' golden visage, Dante is the Bringer of Light, commanding some of the most loyal and mighty warriors ever to raise weapons in the defence of Mankind. In every battle, Dante is the lance's thrust; the spear's tip -- he leads his Angels in a wrathful descent, their blades bared and thirsting for enemy blood. Though he is forever to be found where the fighting is thickest, Dante has never been too proud to cede honour to Battle-Brothers and other Imperial commanders, if his skyborne warriors are best used elsewhere, hunting particular prey or taking a specific objective. In every battle, he will be seen at the head of his praetorians, the Blood Angels of the Sanguinary Guard, whose golden armour matches his own. Each of these champions of the Chapter are heroes in their own right, forgoing their chance at personal rank to remain by their master's side. Each has served him for Terran centuries; they are his weapons as surely as the Axe Mortalis and Perdition Pistol that he bears into battle. On the rare occasions he takes to the field of battle without his closest kindred, Dante will lead a Company Captain's Honour Guard, or even take temporary command of a Sergeant's Assault Marines. The squads seconded to Dante never forget the privilege of being chosen to serve the Lord Commander, and most adorn their armour in some way to acknowledge the honour. In his millennia of humble service, the Blood Angels have cleansed entire sub-sectors, destroyed whole Renegade Chapters, and stood fast against the encroaching doom of the End Times. And through it all, the Imperium sees nothing but the unmoving, beauteous death mask covering Dante's features. However, what they see is a lie. Without the mask, Dante's face is a monument to one and a half thousand standard years of bloodshed and battle. He retains his angelic beauty, a gift of his Primarch's genetic coding, but the inhuman serenity of his visage is lined by tracks of weariness and ennui unknown to any other mortal. His hair, once gold, has turned as white as the marble statues cast in his image. He is old now -- and it shows. The Blood Angels are a soulful breed, and their master exemplifies it above any other. Pale eyes stare out at a galaxy that holds nothing but war, populated by beasts and aliens that spill into Mankind's domain in a never-ending tide. Dante knows there will be no final victory for the Imperium, yet defeat and surrender are anathema to his warrior spirit. The Lord of Angels is simply pragmatic in his infinite experience -- he fights to survive, so that the candle of Humanity may light the darkness for a little while longer. The Devastation of Baal After sacrificing the Shieldworlds of the Cryptus System to fend off the xenos' earliest advance on the Baal System, the planet of Baal itself came under intense attack by Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Tyranid Hive Fleet was of such mass, even after its considerable losses, that it blotted the stars from the skies. Lord Commander Dante bolstered the formidable defences of the Blood Angels' homeworld and its moons like never before. Not one to await attack, he also sent forth scores of preemptive strike forces to delay, mislead, and whittle down the living armada. Hundreds of splinter fleets were thus defeated. Dante's call, beseeching the Blood Angels' Successors to send immediate aid to their parent Chapter, did not go unheeded. The Flesh Tearers were the first to arrive, and ultimately all the Successor Chapters save the Lamenters answered the call. Even the Knights of Blood, who had been declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the High Lords of Terra, arrived to bolster the defences. It was still not enough. Learning at an exponential rate, Hive Fleet Leviathan could not be thwarted by the same strategy twice. Advancing steadily, their superior numbers cleared the entire surrounding sector of life before the xenos made planetfall upon Baal and her twin moons. The first nineteen waves, each larger than the last, were driven off at great loss to the Blood Angels and their Successor allies. Five Chapter Masters fell in that bitter fighting, three in the Battle at the Dome of Angels alone. The Tyranids began the process of absorbing all biomass from Baal and its moons, absorbing even the radiation-poisoned deserts of Baal Secundus. With their defences in ruin and Baal's moons stripped and broken, the remaining Space Marines retreated back to the rubble of the Blood Angels' sprawling fortress-monastery. There, they prepared for a last stand as the next wave swept downwards. Doom, it seemed, had at last come to the Sons of Sanguinius. It was then that the Great Rift cracked open the galaxy in the wake of the fall of Cadia to the 13th Black Crusade, and the withered Baal System was blasted by the aetheric storms. Although no further attack waves came from the Leviathan Hive Fleet, not a single Imperial defender remained alive upon the last moon, Baal Prime. On Baal itself there were already enough Tyranids there to destroy the Imperial troops many times over. Even with no chance of victory, Commander Dante led his troops, each fighting retreat seemingly more hopeless than the last. As the final perimeter was broken, the stars reappeared. Looking skywards, the Tyranids on the surface of Baal sought contact with their Hive Fleet, but it was gone, replaced by a newly arrived Imperial fleet. Like an angel of vengeance came the Primarch Roboute Guilliman, now the Lord Commander of the Imperium and his Indomitus Crusade. After many more battles, Baal was finally cleared of the xenos threat. A great rebuilding of both world and Chapter was undertaken, for the Blood Angels and their Successors were sorely needed elsewhere in the beleaguered Imperium. What became of the Leviathan is a mystery, although a clue was found upon the now-barren moon of Baal Prime. Xenos skulls were piled impossibly high in the much-reviled, eight-pillared symbol of one of the Blood Angels' most terrible and ancient nemeses: the Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha and his army of Khornate daemons. In the wake of the Leviathan's defeat, the Blood Angels began to rebuild. Their gene-seed stocks were recalled, taking their rightful place beneath the rising arches of the restored Arx Angelicum. The several thousand grizzled Aspirants who survived the siege were all inducted, and those who endured were funnelled into the outsized Scout Companies authorised by Commander Dante for his Chapter and their Successors. The ranks were further bolstered by a huge influx of Primaris Space Marines, unfrozen from the vaults of Belisarius Cawl's Ark Mechanicus Zar-Quaesitor or produced upon Baal itself using the newly installed mechanisms brought by Archmagos Dominus Cawl. With Commander Dante declared Regent of the entire Imperium Nihilus by Guilliman, the Blood Angels and their Successors were soon ready to rejoin the war for the Emperor's realm. It is well that they are, for the fight has become more desperate than ever before. Dante's Final Duty Lord Commander Dante has grown weary of his burdens despite all of his success, or perhaps because of it. He has lived far longer than he should, and the burden of Terran centuries grows ever more cumbersome. Only one thing prevents Dante succumbing to ennui. Recorded in the Scrolls of Sanguinius are the Primarch's visions of a great battle to overshadow all others. This vision was predicted before his death at the hands of Horus, that a lone "Golden Warrior" would ultimately stand between the Emperor of Mankind and His destruction. Many Imperial scholars have assumed this prophecy refers to Sanguinius' own stand against Horus aboard his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, during the Battle of Terra at the end of the Horus Heresy. Through some inherent instinct, perhaps a lingering trace of his Primarch's fabled far-seeing eye, Dante believes otherwise. One day, perhaps one day soon, the defence of the now-helpless Emperor, who resides trapped on His Golden Throne, will rest in Dante's hands, and he aims to fulfil this final duty before the darkness claims him. Commander Dante never expected to see his Chapter's final days, yet he faced them unbowed. He never expected to see a Primarch returned, yet he knelt before Roboute Guilliman with thankful hearts. When Guilliman named Dante as his Regent of the Imperium Nihilus, the Lord of Baal felt the hand of fate land heavy upon his shoulder. With the fury of the Great Rift unleashed, a darkness looms more terrible than any in the Imperium's history. The Blood Angels now stand before that darkness with the throne of Terra at their backs, and will have to fight like never before. Coupled with the revitalising purpose of this new duty is the fresh hope brought by the Primaris Space Marines, the possibility that perhaps the Sons of Sanguinius will not burn out like a guttering candle. It is said amongst the Blood Angels that Commander Dante has never stood taller, even as he does so in the face of such terrible adversity. The Regent of the Imperium Nihilus has sworn to purge his dark new realm of the taint of Chaos, even should it take another thousand Terran years and more. After all, it is amidst the darkest night that such golden angels shine the brightest. Notable Campaigns *'The Kallius Insurrection (Unknown Date.M40)' - The Blood Angels, once again, tasted the risk of annihilation, losing nine out of every ten Space Marines, and almost the entire Chapter Council. Three full Companies -- including the young Brother-Captain Dante and his 8th Assault Company -- launched a devastating assault on Kallius' Landing and its dependency worlds, in support of their overwhelmed Successor brethren, the Angels Numinous (more commonly known, because of their symbol, as the "Blood Eagles"). World after world rose up in rebellion, insurrections spreading across the region and blanketing the sub-sector. Entire populations and ragtag fleets were led into battle by chanting Traitor Marines, clad in a panoply of colours, drawn from countless warbands. The Blood Angels found themselves tied up in protracted conflicts and trench wars, caught in a cobweb of a much wider heresy. As the solar weeks became months and the solar months became standard years, more and more of the Chapter arrived to punish, cleanse, and reclaim the rebellious worlds. The Rolls of Honour run black with the ink of millions of enemies slain, but the Blood Angels suffered casualties beyond their ability to sustain a fighting front. With dozens of Imperial Guard regiments arriving alongside several relief Chapters, the Blood Angels withdrew from the conflict with their heads held high. Yet the bitterest blow was yet to be struck: it came as the remnants of their fleet mustered above Kallius' Landing itself, when a Traitor armada broke from the Warp, hungry for the chance to wipe the Angels from the face of the Imperium. The battle that followed lasted for three solar days of void war and vicious boarding actions, during which Dante and his warriors were responsible for the taking and scuttling of seven capital-class vessels. When the Blood Angels at last stood victorious and took stock of their losses, fewer than two hundred Space Marines clad in red still drew breath. The last surviving Sanguinary Priests and Chaplains came together in communion, electing the last-living Captain as the next Chapter Master. Dante accepted the mantle of Lord of the Angelic Host, while still wearing his bloodstained, broken armour. It would be the last day he ever wore red, forever after to be clad in sacred gold. Not because he was the best or the brightest, but purely because he was the last man standing. Such an ascension should have heralded a grim rule, but fate would tell a different tale. *'Scouring of Ultramar (746.M41)' - Recognising that the Tyranid invasion of Ultramar is but the first of many yet to occur, Lord Commander Dante sends three companies of Blood Angels to assist the Ultramarines in scouring the remaining beasts from the eastern sectors. Upon their return three standard years later, the three companies are much reduced in number, but wealthy in invaluable Tyranid-hunting doctrines that are swiftly passed on to the rest of the Chapter. *'The Assault on Baal (798.M41)' - Three colossal Space Hulks drop out of Warp in the Baal system, signalling the arrival of WAAAGH! Big Skorcha. Dante orders the deployment of two companies to each of Baal's moons. The remaining companies are assigned to strike forces and ordered to board and destroy the Space Hulks. Two of the Space Hulks are destroyed with much of the WAAAGH! still on board. Before it too is destroyed, the final Space Hulk disgorges thousands of Orks, the Warlord Big Skorcha among them, onto the surface of Baal. Knowing the bulk of the Blood Angels forces to still be in orbit or on the two moons, Big Skorcha aims to breach and ransack the Chapter's fortress-monastery. However, the Blood Angels are not to be so easily outmanoeuvred, as the Chapter's Dreadnoughts led the defence of the fortress-monastery long enough for reinforcements to arrive from orbit. *'The Axonar Spirewar (830.M41)' - Dante sends the 3rd and 4th Companies to quell rebellion on the Hive World of Axonar. Deeming the defences at the base of the hive cities to be too formidable for a direct assault, Captain Metraen orders a series of low-orbit Jump Pack insertions onto the upper spires of the hives. Trapped behind their own defences, the rebels are swiftly crushed. *'The Battle of Stonehaven (901.M41)' - Lord Commander Dante leads the Stormraven drop assault that finally breaks WAAAGH! Bludcrumpa's solar decade-long siege on Forge World Ironhelm. *'Second War for Armageddon (941.M41)' - WAAAGH! Ghazghkull descends upon the Hive World of Armageddon during the Second War for Armageddon. The Blood Angels are one of three Space Marine Chapters to respond. Such is Lord Commander Dante's reputation that Tu'Shan of the Salamanders and Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines cede overall command to him. The tactical manoeuvrability of the Blood Angels proves to be crucial in the later stages of the campaign. The 3rd Company, under the command of the newly promoted Captain Erasmus Tycho, forms the heart of an armoured spearhead that cripples the chief Ork supply lines, leaving the WAAAGH!'s Mekboyz without the necessary gubbins and gears to keep the massive Skullhammas and Stompas fully operational. With its heavy guns thus neutralised, the WAAAGH! is finally broken before the towering walls of Tartarus Hive, where Dante and Tu'Shan famously fight side by side against Ghazghkull's bodyguard. *'The Gehenna Campaign (955.M41)' - Lord Commander Dante and the 3rd Company battle against the Necron Legions of the Silent King amidst the dusty wastes of Gehenna. For three solar weeks, neither side can seize the upper hand, with Dante's tactical brilliance stretched to its limits in countering the time-space manipulations of the Silent King. The stalemate is broken only when a Tyranid splinter fleet enters orbit, forcing the two armies to break off hostilities and fight the common foe. The impromptu alliance proves to be the Tyranids' undoing. Following the final battle at Devil's Crag, Dante and the Silent King go their separate ways, both forces now too battleworn to guarantee victory over the other, and, at least for the Blood Angels, the idea of turning on those they had so recently fought alongside, a rather distasteful one. *'The Blackfang Crusade (994.M41)' - Judging that the Ork strongholds in the Blackfang System have defied the Imperium for too long, Dante mobilises the entire Chapter in a standard year-long campaign that not only drives the Orks from the twelve worlds of Blackfang, but also from two neighbouring star systems. *'The Shield of Baal (998.M41)' - News reaches Baal that the Cryptan Shield, intended to hold back the might of Hive Fleet Leviathan, has collapsed. Already Lord Commander Dante has put plans in motion to defend the Blood Angels' homeworld, strike forces fighting hit-and-run battles with Leviathan's smaller splinter-fleets throughout the Red Scar. Meanwhile, the defences of Baal and her moons have been bolstered like never before; indomitable fortresses rise above the sweltering sands, and the might of the Blood Angels' successor Chapters gathers from across the galaxy. Yet still it may not be enough, for the Tyranids are seemingly without number, and Hive Fleet Leviathan is learning the weaknesses of its prey at an exponential rate. Knowing that the consumption of the Cryptus System would open the floodgates for an unstoppable Tyranid invasion of Baal, Commander Dante takes action. At the head of a mighty strike force that comprises the 1st and 2nd Companies of the Blood Angels, Brother Corbulo, First Captain Arenos Karlaen, Chief Librarian Mephiston and the bulk of Gabriel Seth's Flesh Tearers, Dante strikes out for the Cryptus System. He will see the defences shored up if such a thing is still possible, and if not will do battle with the Cryptoid Tendril directly in a desperate bid for the salvation of Baal. *'Scions of Sanguinius Conclave (999.M41)' - Teetering on the brink of oblivion following the events on the Shrine World of Sabien, the fate of the Blood Angels Chapter now required the magnanimity of their Successor Chapters. Lord Commander Dante summoned all of the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters for a conclave on Baal following the near-disastrous Chapter civil war that nearly tore the Blood Angels apart. Dante called for the support of the Blood Angels Successors to help aid the Chapter in the protection of their common Primarch's homeworld and his remains from the attack of both the Tyranids and the Forces of Chaos. While Dante lead the discussion at the conclave, the Apothecaria was working on a radical new procedure to replenish the ranks of the Blood Angels in one swift stroke: the lost art of replicae. Caecus was the Chief Apothecary or Apothecae Majoris of the Blood Angels. Disturbed by the dwindling numbers of his Chapter, and dreading its extinction, he was involved in fruitless experiments, which Lord Commander Dante ordered stopped, to clone Space Marines, thus eliminating the need to go through the arduous process of the maturation and implantation of the gene-seed in an Aspirant. However, Caecus disobeyed the order and secretly continued the experiments, prodded by an agent of the vile Chaos Space Marine Apothecary Fabius Bile. He was tricked into bringing Bile, who was disguised as a well-known Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Biologis, to Baal, mistakenly thinking the false "Magos" would help in cloning Space Marines to increase the Blood Angels' numbers. Through Bile's manipulations, Caecus was duped, and only managed to create monstrous, mutant clone-Astartes known as "Bloodfiends" who were consumed by the Red Thirst. These creatures were a shattered mirror reformed in the image of a Blood Angel, but lacked any of the qualities that could be thought of as human. The mutations that cursed the gene-seed of the Blood Angels had been enhanced by the machinations and Chaotic tech-heresy of Fabius Bile, and with each drop of blood they consumed, the thirst that dominated the Bloodfiends grew stronger. The mutants broke free from the confines of Caecus' laboratorium and began to run rampant through the sacred halls of the fortress-monastery of the Blood Angels. During their rampage, Bile managed to steal a glass vial that Caeucus had carried back from the Chapel of the Red Grail -- a measure of the mingled blood of a hundred standard centuries of Sanguinary Priests and the Primarch himself, the raw vitae of the Chapter. During the Bloodfiends' rampage, a small group of the bloodthirsty mutants assaulted the sacred Chapel of the Chapter's fortress-monastery. Brother Corbulo raced to the Chapel to confront the vile creatures. He knew exactly what it was the beasts wanted, and he bellowed out a denial, charging in a headlong rush to meet such embodiments of corruption. The creatures swarmed Corbulo as the Sanguinary Priest carved into them with his Chainsword Heaven's Teeth. But the largest of the Bloodfiends, a massive brute easily the size of an Astartes in Terminator Armour, threw itself towards its target -- the Red Grail and the precious blood of the Primarch it contained. The Bloodfiend seized the holy relic and then tipped the contents of the cup into its open mouth and drained it to the dregs. Now that the beasts had tasted the blood of the Primarch, they only craved more. In the aftermath of this desecration, Bile had achieved his goal and escaped from the Blood Angels' homeworld with a sample of the precious vitae of their Primarch. The Blood Angels and their Successors successfully defended their most sacred of sites on Baal -- the Golden Sarcophagus of Sanguinius within the sacred sepulchre where the body of the Great Angel lay for all time, sleeping in light, forever preserved. The Sons of Sanguinius destroyed the horde of mutants and erased the stain of Chaos from their midst. They had paid for the continued sanctity of the Great Angel with their blood, and in the aftermath of this misery, Lord Commander Dante took responsibility for what had happened and he accepted it without complaint. Dante believed that it was his hubris that had brought the Chapter to this dark place. The Successor Chapters took this into consideration as well as Lord Commander Dante's original request for the Successors to grant the Blood Angels a small tithe of their Chapter's Initiates in order to replenish the ranks of the Chapter. The Successor Chapters unanimously agreed to hand over to the Blood Angels some of their own Neophytes to help their ancestral Chapter rebuild its strength in the wake of the Chaos assault -- and in preparation for the oncoming assault by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan and the Forces of Chaos of the 13th Black Crusade. Wargear *'Artificer Armour' - Dante's Power Armour is a shining gold in colour, and it is said to be "like watching a flame of glory pass above the battlefield," when he uses his Jump Pack to swiftly move across the field of battle. *'Jump Pack' - A Jump Pack is a bulky, vectored-thrust rocket engine fueled by Promethium that can be worn as an attachment by a single soldier, designed to be attached to the backpacks of the Space Marines or the Sisters of Battle's suits of Power Armour. They are used to make powered jumps across the battlefield, allowing the warriors wearing them to cover ground quickly and unexpectedly drop into the midst of their foes to launch a close-combat assault. *''Death Mask of Sanguinius'' - This ancient artefact is an incredibly lifelike golden mask that is said to have been modelled upon the features of the Blood Angels Primarch after his death. The mask radiates Sanguinius' anger and disgust at Horus' betrayal, emitting waves of such potent hatred that enemies are paralysed or put to flight by its hollow, accusing stare. When Commander Dante enters battle the power of the Death Mask of Sanguinius swells and the visage itself seems almost to become invested with ghostly life. When Dante screams a battle cry, so too does the helm he wears, while its glower of hatred for Traitors and Heretics becomes Dante's own. Dante has never removed this golden death mask outside of the Blood Angels' fortress-monastery, so his actual physical appearance is unknown. When Dante is in battle, it appears to come to life. A nimbus of golden energy plays about his head that strikes terror into the hearts of the Chapter's enemies. *'Iron Halo' - The Iron Halo is a revered part of the Armoury of the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes and is also a common Astartes award for valour. The Iron Halo is a halo-shaped ring that is positioned above the head of the wielder, usually mounted on the backpack of Space Marine Power Armour but sometimes mounted in the gorget. The Iron Halo is a prestigious honour that is granted only to the most exceptional of the Astartes within a Space Marine Chapter as a reward for uncommon initiative and valour. It is most often worn by the Chapter's Captains and Chapter Master, though Veteran Astartes and Sergeants can also earn the right to add it to their armour in certain circumstances. The Iron Halo appears to share the same basic technological mechanisms as the Space Marine Chaplain's Rosarius, as they both produce a protective effect using gravitic and now poorly-understood Conversion Field technology. *''Perdition Pistol'' - In battle, Dante also wields the Perdition Pistol, a unique Astartes-sized Infernus Pistol crafted using technical knowledge long since lost by the Adeptus Mechanicus, making it an extremely powerful ranged weapon. Only a warrior as great and as loyal to the Emperor of Mankind as Lord Commander Dante is permitted to wield such a potent and ancient weapon. *''Axe Mortalis'' - Dante's other weapon is an immensely powerful Power Axe, the Axe Mortalis, forged in the days immediately after the end of the Horus Heresy. The Axe Mortalis was crafted by the famed Chapter Artificer Metriculus in the days following the Heresy. Deeply affected by the death of Sanguinius and the betrayal of the Traitor Legions, he sought to fashion a weapon that could slay the debased warlords of the Heretic Astartes like the dogs they were. The result of his labours was the Axe Mortalis, a weapon that crackles with barely suppressed killing power, and can scythe through even the thickest ceramite and plasteel like a sharp knife through silk. Perfectly balanced and said to bear the death curse of Sanguinius upon its skull-wrought haft, the Axe Mortalis became the ritual weapon of the Blood Angels Chapter Master and has reaped countless Heretic lives. Dante uses it to slice through the enemy ranks and cut down the enemies of the Imperium of Man during close quarters assaults. *'Frag Grenades' *'Krak Grenades' Sources *''Codex Adeptus Astartes - Blood Angels'' (8th Edition), pp. 22-23, 26-27, 76 *''Codex Adeptus Astartes - Blood Angels'' (7th Edition), pp. 15, 32-33, 51, 64, 66-67, 95, 99, 101, 103, 180-181 *''Codex: Blood Angels'' (5th Edition), pp. 9, 12, 14-17, 23, 29, 40-41, 51, 53, 66, 82, 180-181 *''Codex: Blood Angels (4th Edition), pg. 6 *''Codex: Angels of Death (2nd Edition) *''Dante'' (Novel) by Guy Haley *''Deathwatch: First Founding'' (RPG), pg. 39 *''Index Astartes II'', "Angels of Death - The Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter" *''Shield of Baal: Exterminatus'' (Campaign Supplement) (Digital Edition), pp. 10-11, 17-19, 21-22, 26-28, 31-32, 36, 44-46, 49-50, 54, 64, 118-119, 121, 127-128, 130-132, 137-138, 150, 154-155, 157-158, 160, 164-165, 172, 179, 181, 206, 210, 213, 227-228, 231-232, 235, 238, 240, 242, 265-270, 275, 279, 292, 314, 316-317, 319, 322, 326, 328, 330, 332, 334-335, 337 *''Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook'' (6th Edition), pg. 181 *''Warlords of the Dark Millennium - Dante'' (Digital Edition), pp. 3-4, 6-12, 21-26 *''White Dwarf'' 331 (UK), "Blood Angels Official Codex: Part II *''White Dwarf'' 330 (UK), "Blood Angels Official Codex: Part I *''White Dwarf'' 329 (US), "Sons of Sanguinius" and "Standard Bearer", pp. 74, 87 *''White Dwarf'' 299 (UK), "Angels of Death: Codex Space Marines Preview" *''White Dwarf'' 262 (AUS), "Index Astartes – Blood Angels" *''White Dwarf'' 261 (US), "Index Astartes First Founding - Angels of Death, The Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter" *''White Dwarf'' 228 (US), "Codex Blood Angels - Angels of Death" *''White Dwarf'' 194 (US), "Lords of Baal: Blood Angels Characters", pp. 11–14 *''Bloodquest II: Into the Eye of Terror'' by Gordon Rennie and illustrated by Colin MacNeil *''Bloodquest III: The Daemon's Mark'' by Gordon Rennie and illustrated by Colin MacNeil *''The Blood Angels Omnibus'' by James Swallow *''Blood Angels Novel Series'': **''Deus Encarmine'' (Novel) by James Swallow **''Deus Sanguinius'' (Novel) by James Swallow **''Red Fury'' (Novel) by James Swallow **''Black Tide'' (Novel) by James Swallow *''The Word of the Silent King'' (Ebook) by Laurie Goulding *''Dante's Canyon'' (Ebook) by Josh Reynolds *''Blood Angel's Quick Reads Collection: The Angels of Death'' (Ebook Collection) *''Dante: Lord of the Host'' (Ebook) by James Swallow *[http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440191a&prodId=prod1160021a Games Workshop Catalogue - Lord Commander Dante] *Warhammer Community - Artefacts of the Blood Angels Gallery File:Dante_4.jpg|Lord Commander Dante of the Blood Angels Chapter wearing his golden Artificer Armour File:Lord Commander Dante.jpg|Chapter Master Dante of the Blood Angels File:Dante_-_Alex_Boyd.jpg|Lord Commander Dante leading his Chapter in combat File:Death_Mask_of_Sanguinius.jpg|The Death Mask of Sanguinius Dante's Artificer Armour.jpg|Dante's golden Artificer Armour Axe Mortalis.jpg|The Axe Mortalis, a master-crafted Power Axe and Chapter relic Infernus Pistol.jpg|Dante's Infernus Pistol, the Perdition Pistol es:Cervan Dante Category:L Category:Blood Angels Category:Characters Category:Imperial Characters Category:Space Marines